


The Underground Railway

by Urdnot Wrecks (Urdnot_Wrecks)



Category: The Technomancer (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:40:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22435789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Urdnot_Wrecks/pseuds/Urdnot%20Wrecks
Summary: Phobos' and Scum's plan to help mutants fleeing Ophir
Kudos: 3
Collections: Hello Earth? This Is Mars...





	The Underground Railway

Mutants escaping to the Valley from the cities faced numerous obstacles, but one of the key ones was finding food. Those using merchants’ sandsails were lucky: they could carry substantial provisions with them, or (if they had enough serum) buy what they needed from their travelling companions. But not all escaping mutants were so fortunate, and traversing the desert sands by foot was slow, hard work. In the early days of the revolts, many died before they had covered ten kilometres.

The free mutants knew the desert well, and were happy to act as guides if they came across an escaping party; but many mutants fleeing the cities knew little of what to expect. They needed food; and they needed information.

Phobos was inspired to set up an underground railway. His plan was to create a chain of food caches on the major routes likely to be used by fleeing mutants. Noctian pots proved ideal for the purpose: they were mass-produced and cheap, and were easy to make air-tight if needed. Cairns marked the spot where the pots were buried, and Mutant Valley would pay cooperative merchants to visit and restock the caches as required, or would do so themselves if the locations were easy to visit from the Valley.  
Preserving food in the desert was actually not too difficult: the caves were cool, the sun-baked plains full of radiation; both prevented food deterioration.

Scum found a way to provide information to those finding themselves in the desert for the first time: he commandeered a popular Mutant song and re-wrote the lyrics. The song gained a great many new verses, describing locations of the food caches, safe routes, basic desert skills. And the rhyming and rhythmic structure of the song meant fewer errors crept in when it was passed from person to person.

Travel in the desert was never going to be without risk, and mutants would sometimes give all their serum to a merchant for transport, only to find themselves being sold at the next slave market. But as time went by, and respect for Mutant Valley and revulsion at mutant slavery grew, more and more sympathetic folk, both mutant and non-mutant, provided support.

From “How we freed ourselves” by Teacher Galeano

**Author's Note:**

> A piece for the second “Hello Earth? This is Mars...” ’zine. As always, many thanks to [Wahlbuilder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WahlBuilder/pseuds/WahlBuilder) and all the authors there; and to the lovely folk of (what was formerly) the Technomancer Discord


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